Judge, Jury and Executioner

   Sunday morning arrived with horrible news from Orlando, Florida.  Fifty people in a city that also is home to the “Happiest Place on Earth” were killed and another 53 were wounded by a lone gunman in the deadliest mass shooting in our nation’s history.

   In America the word “terrorism” almost always arises when the name of the alleged perpetrator sounds Middle Eastern.  Investigations regarding ties to ISIS are almost automatic.   However, even the killer’s own claims to ISIS sympathy made in a 911 call shortly before the crime proves little about his real motive.

   Humans usually justify their beliefs by seeking agreement from others with similar beliefs.  What better place for a would-be mass murdered to find acceptance than in the philosophies of people who justify homicidal acts with a twisted interpretation of the doctrines of a peaceful faith?

   According to Meriam-Webster, “terrorism” is: “the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal.”  Clearly, any crime of this magnitude is terrifying, but it was not, by definition, terrorism.

   Mateen’s father, Kir Saddique, gave us a window into the world of his son’s mind when he reportedly told investigators that Mateen recently became upset after seeing two men in Miami kissing.  Saddique also reportedly said that his New York-born son’s crime “had nothing to do with religion.”

   Taking away terrorism as a motive, observers are left with the picture of a man who was mentally unstable.  He was a security guard with a firearms license that allowed him to legally purchase an AR-15 assault rifle.  He was a man for which federal law enforcement agencies opened and shut investigations on at least two occasions because they had no legal merit.  He was a man so consumed with hatred of gay men kissing in public that he drove almost two hours to personally shut down the Pulse nightclub, a business that called itself “Orlando’s hottest gay bar…”

   This tragedy was not terrorism.  It was a hate crime.  By definition a “hate crime” is: “A crime, usually violent, motivated by prejudice or intolerance toward an individual’s natural origin, ethnicity, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.”

   LGBT people are often the targets of hatred and violent crimes.  While Mateen is no longer a threat to them, other people with bias toward the LGBT community still inspire fear.  Bigotry is not a crime and yet its insidiousness perpetuates violence against countless innocent victims.

   We do not ask to be born into any nation, we just are.  We do not ask to be born Black, white, Latino, Asian, or into a lower caste.  We do not ask to be left-handed, short, tall or disabled.  We do not ask our parents for names that cause us to be bullied in schoolyards or placed on a government watch list.  We do not wake up one morning and “decide” who we will be physically attracted to.  If we had a choice in these matters, we surely would choose a path that kept us out of harm’s way.  Unfortunately, none of us can exercise such an option.

   Americans live in a nation in which we are able to love and hate equally.  We can feel sad, happy, fearful, bored, optimistic, pessimistic, or apathetic with complete immunity.  Generations before us fought and died so our government cannot deny us access to our emotions.  Personal rights come with great responsibility, however.  Though we have the freedom to feel a spectrum of emotions, we are bound by law to express those emotions responsibly.   My rights end at the tips of my fingers, and should never be at the business end of a gun.

   Sadly, the great tragedy in Orlando is one that will be repeated over and over on a small scale every day, everywhere.  One person claims his right to fear and irrational hatred.  The joy and love of another person is, therefore, so unconscionable that it must be stopped forever.  Insanity is not a crime until it acts on the person of another.

   Judge.

   Jury.

   Executioner.